ADVERTORIAL

Levelling agents: A solution to quality improvement

in dyeing
Rakesh Goyal & C N . Prabhu
Yogeshwar Chemicals Ltd.
Copper Roller's Premises,
L.B.S Marg, Mumbai- 400078
E-mail: yogeshwarchem@vsnl.net
Website: www.yogeshwarchemicals.com

Introduction
PROCESSING of textiles is a challenging task to meet the
expectations of the customers for the desired appearance,
feel and functional characteristics of the end product at the
lowest cost with standard quality. Dyeing is a critical operation to produce fabrics with uniform and consistent shades
with RPT more than 90%. Even a modern process house
equipped with the latest machinery and systems face the
problem of shade variation in the same lot or in between
different lots of the same fabric due to innumerable variables such as fibre substrates, machinery, dyes, auxiliaries,
procedures and the skul of the work force.
Selection of dyes and chemicals is as important as machinery used in dyeing.
The levelling characteristics of a dye while dyeing a
substrate is generally governed by
The exhaustion behaviour during initial period of dyeing
and
The levelling out capacity (migration power)
A dye depending on its chemical structure transfers very
slowly on the fibre, tends to dye the fibre uniformly whereas
the dyes which go up rapidly onto the fibre are Mkely to dye
unevenly. If a dye has good migration properties, the
unevenness caused during initial phase gets levelled out
rapidly under dyeing conditions and a level dyeing is obtained. In other words, the levelling capacity of a dye is its
abuity to even out variations in the dye distribution in the
substrate. In actual practice, the requirements of dyes with
matching compatibility, penetration properties and adequate
automation with minimum supervision cannot be met by all
the processing units and hence a range of levelling agents
for different dye-fibre systems have been developed by the
textile auxiliary manufacturers to meet the qualiity requirement.
A range of levelling agents supplied by Yogeshwar Chemicals Limited is given in Table 1.

Table 1: YCL range of Levelling Agents

Product

Fibre Substrates
Cotton

Lixatron DKI
Iixatron ER
Lixatron' VLH
Iixatrori' DFT
Lixatron PES
Lixatron DLE
Axcelerator NCEF
Axcelerator NBSI
lixatron NH
Lixatron B
Lixatron SET
Lixatron ANI

Polyester Wool Acrylic Nylon

^
*^
^

The primary objectives of using levelling agents during

dyeing of different substrates are the following:
To obtain level shades.
Depth and tone of the shade should be the same.
To get optimum colour value.
The levelling capacity depends very much on the characteristics of the substrate and dye. The levekiess increases
with the I increase in temperature, time of dyeing, type and
quantity of levelling agent.
The selecdon of levelling agent will depend on the fibre
substrate, class of dyes, type of equipment and the conditions of jdyeing used.
Dyes possess different affinities towards texdle material.
The affinity to texdle substrate determines the suitability
and the rate of dyeing. The rate of dyeing can be controlled
by altering the dyeing condidons. It is because of the fact
that the dyes having a high affinity for the fibre are likely to
produce I uneven dyeings if their rate of dyeing is not
retarded.! The rate of dyeing can be controlled by incorporating certain auxiliaries, which either compete with the dye
O NOVEMBER 2009

ADVERTORIAL

for the fibre sites thereby reducing the effective rate of

dyeing or combine with the dye forming a loose complex,
which then cannot be absorbed on the fibre surface. Subsequently the complex gets broken at higher temperature
and dye is again made available.
I'he mechanism of action of levelling agents used during
dyeing of polyester, cotton, wool and acrylic fibres is described in this article.

reached in order to avoid rushing of the dye during the

heating phase.
Lixatron DFT: is a levelling agent for polyester dyeing.
It can be used as a stripping agent for disperse dyes when
used in higher dosage.
Lixatron PES: has excellent levelling and dispersing
action during dyeing of polyester with disperse dyes.

Dyeing of cotton with reactive dyes

Dyeing of Polyester
With the introduction of texturised polyester yarns and
multifibre blend composition, the dyer is very often faced
with the problem of level dyeing.
Causes for shade variation in polyester fibre are the
following:
Different merge numbers.
Denier variation from lot to lot.
Difference in thermal history of yarn.
Variation in yarn specifications and fabric structure.
Disperse dyes are generally classified into three groups as
under:
Low energy dyes
: Good migration properties
Medium energy dyes : Low^er niigradon properties
High energy dyes
: Limited migration properties
There is a compromise between ease of level dyeing on
one hand and fasmess to sublimation on the other.

Migration rating of disperse dyes

The general criteria for giving migration rating to disperse dyes based on migration test are given in Table 2.
While producTable 2: Migration rating of
ing tertiary shades,
disperse dyes
dyes having similar migration ratDye retained by
Migration rating
ings have to be
original dyeing(%)
selected. A dye
5 (Best)
having a migration Up to 50
50-55
4-5
rating of five lev4 (Good)
els out easily, while 55-60
60-65
3-4 (Fair)
that with a migrat65-70
3
ing rating of one
70-75
2-3
has poor levelling
2 (Poor)
75-80
properties.
The non-ionic levelling agents increase the solubility of
the disperse dye thereby lowering the initial strike rate and
overall rate of dye uptake.
The carrier type of levelling agents are used in HT/HP
dyeing of polyester to get level dyeing. These levelling
agents promote migration of the dye with low migration
power during dyeing. These levelling agents are added to the
dye bath only after the maximum dyeing temperature is
COLQURAGE O NOVEMBER 2009

Lixatron DKI: is an amphoteric surfactant which is a

levelling agent for substantive (direct) and reactive dyes on
cotton.
Amphoteric surfactants contain both positive and negative charges in the same molecule. A particular ionic charge
under given conditions will depend on the pH of the bath.
Thus, under alkaline conditions the molecules act as anionic
species whue under acidic conditions they behave as cationic species. At neutral pH i.e. at isolectric point the ionic
charges are balanced and the molecule carries no charge.
This means an amphoteric product is capable of interacting with anionic cotton dyes in the dye bath, thus, slowing
down their exhaustion and is capable of absorption onto
the fibre, competing with dye, and thereby equalizing variations in affinity on the fibre.
The addition of salt during reactive dyeing creates an
electrical double layer which hides the electrostatic charge,
allowing the dye to approach the fibre. The salt also causes
aggregation of the direct or reactive dye that have a higher
affinity for the cellulosic fibres. By adding levelling agent the
proportion of monomeric form of the dye is increased as
compared to the aggregated dye. The dye molecules then
diffuse within the accessible amorphous regions of the fibre
and get fixed by chemical bonding. This, ultimately results
in level dyeing.

Dyeing of Acrylic Yarn

Acrylic fibres contain sulphonate groups attached to the
fibre molecule. These groups ionize and produce sulphonate
anions in the fibre structure surrounded by an equal number
of sodium cations to maintain electrical neutrality.
During the dyeing of acrylic fibres with cationic dyes
from an aqueous medium, the sodium cations are replaced
by the dye cations which are then firmly held at the negative
sides in the fibre structure. However, the dye cations are
absorbed at the faster rate, leading to uneven dyeing.
The problem of uneven dyeing is overcome by adding
certain cationic products to the dye bath when the cations
of these products also compete with the dye cations for the
fibre sites, thereby reducing the effective dye concentration
in the dye bath. As a result the dyeing rate decreases. Hence

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ADVERTORIAL

the cationic products are called retarding agents of levelling

agents.
However, the cationic product does not remain permanently in the fibre. During the later stages of dyeing especially at the higher temperature of dyeing, the retarding
agent cations are replaced by the dye cations and maximum
colour yield is obtained.
Retardant levelling supplied by YCL are the following:
Lixatron ANI: Retardant for acrylic dyeing

Dyeing of wool and nylon with acid dyes

The acid dye solution produce coloured dye anions and
sodium cations. In presence of acid during dyeing protein
fibres, the amino group acquires a positive charge by

protonadon which attract and retain the dye anion. As the

reaction is reversible, the salt generated acts as a retarding
agent.
Different types of levelling agents are used while dyeing
protein fibres. Anionic levelling agents interact with the
ionized aniino group of the protein fibre and thus retard its
interaction with the dye anions. The wetting property inherent in these levelling agents promotes colour levelling.
The effect produced by levelling agents of another type
is mainly due to their capacity to react with dye anions and
thus slow down their interaction with the fibre. These types
of levellers function only if they do not form precipitate
with the dye.
Some non-ionic levelling agents may be also used during
dyeing as they form unstable compounds with acid dyes. I

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